Whats going on in america?

[Blackbird]

The North losing the civil war was the worst thing to happen to our country, flat out.

Uh, would you care to explain this one >_<?

Regarding CMoon's comments... yes, it is somewhat frightening to admit that it may actually take that kind of upheaval to actually change things in a meaningful way. It's hard to imagine that the government actually represents the interests of the people anymore when almost every action they seem to take in recent years seems to directly contradict the desires of the people (on which these officials were voted into office, I might add). Why have a government that doesn't represent your goals? That's the entire point of democracy.

I don't want to think about what might happen if it comes to that. My desires are the same as any other persons - I want to live in peace and try to realize my life's purpose, nothing more.

Taking an "extended vacation" to somewhere else is looking more and more attractive by the minute...

[neorichieb1971]

I don't think there is a place on Earth not affected by an American collapse.


The downgrade in lifestyle required to get out of this mess is beyond American comprehension. Your not just deflating the balloon, its going to turn inside out.

The first lesson is to find self sufficiency. The rich Americans will have to build plants that make what America imports. After that everything will have to cost what it costs, but at least most Americans will have jobs and working more for pride than money.

Hell I wish that shit happened here. We got a lot of trouble makers going round burning and looting shit right now.

[BryanM]

Uh, would you care to explain this one >_<?

When you're cured of chlamydia, you don't "win" by going out and catching chlamydia again. And then keeping it forever.

Unless your goal is to have chlamydia. Which is what we're all about here. It burns just the way we like it.

[Blackbird]

Ok, so you're saying that the North didn't "win" because, in your eyes, the objective of the Civil War was to get rid of something, and we haven't gotten rid of it.

In that case, are you drawing an analogy between chlamydia and slavery, with the implication that, although we have eliminated slavery in a traditional sense, we have simply replaced it with a system where people are paid only enough to survive, and thus effectively enslaved by their available means(aka wage slaves)?

In short, you are saying that the North lost because we traded one form of slavery for another.

If I am wrong in understanding your point, please correct me.

[lawnspic]

Capitalism is really being put to the test this time around and time will only tell if it is in fact the best system despite its flaws. Ya know i will give the Jap auto makers credit for building there cars here and providing jobs instead of 1-800-Pakistan, India or whatever have u when u call customer service for just about any major corp.(Dell, Captial One) Might sound crude but it is the truth.

[xbl0x180]

Ok, so you're saying that the North didn't "win" because, in your eyes, the objective of the Civil War was to get rid of something, and we haven't gotten rid of it.

In that case, are you drawing an analogy between chlamydia and slavery, with the implication that, although we have eliminated slavery in a traditional sense, we have simply replaced it with a system where people are paid only enough to survive, and thus effectively enslaved by their available means(aka wage slaves)?

In short, you are saying that the North lost because we traded one form of slavery for another.

If I am wrong in understanding your point, please correct me.

The age of the Robber Barons is back. People nowadays are beholden to this ultra-rich oilgarchy

[BulletMagnet]

Capitalism is really being put to the test this time around and time will only tell if it is in fact the best system despite its flaws.

I don't think anyone is really "questioning capitalism", per se, so much as questioning totally unrestrained, unregulated, anything-goes, laissez-faire capitalism. Of course, I personally find it a rather sad commentary on our ability to draw conclusions from the past that we're even still having this discussion.

[Nifty]

Bumping into data sets that say "lol south sucks" over and over again is distracting.

I've always liked these ones

[BryanM]

Kind of reminds me of how Realtime Worlds managed to kill themselves by having "business" people take care of their finances. Cocaine and hookers, indeed...

In that case, are you drawing an analogy between chlamydia and slavery...
In short, you are saying that the North lost because we traded one form of slavery for another.

If I am wrong in understanding your point, please correct me.

No not really, but if it was an analogy The South would be the chlamydia. Slavery is a symptom of evil, not the source of evil by itself.

I am not a neoliberal loon who would use the term "wage slave", as even those on Welfare (homeless men are left to die in a gutter of course) are rich compared to most. The wide grey area between what a person is paid and how much revenue their position brings in is subjective as poo.

What you think you want and what you really want (or what is ultimately good for you) aren't always the same, is all.

[GaijinPunch]

Kind of reminds me of how Realtime Worlds managed to kill themselves by having "business" people take care of their finances. Cocaine and hookers, indeed...

Don't you ever, talk that way about cocaine and hookers again...

[rapoon]

I'll eye up some US blu rays in the meantime and some of those Cave PCB's will undoubtedly come down to reasonable UK GBP prices.

Doubtful. While the yen strength is more related to dollar weakness, you are still considered in the danger zone of Greece, which is also fueling the yen. Our Swiss friends have a far better chance at getting Cave PCBs at a decent price than you, unfortunately. It's FX though... who knows what will happen.

I was listening to NPR last week and there was talk about Japan possibly injecting ~50 trillion yen (did they move forward with the 10 trillion injection?)
and trying to decrease the strength of the yen. The report was brief and focused on the increase of manufacturing costs for Toyota and Nissan.

[Ex-Cyber]

Bumping into data sets that say "lol south sucks" over and over again is distracting.

I've always liked these ones

There's no way those numbers are right. I'd believe 5-10 points between the top and bottom (influenced by e.g. general literacy and test-taking skills), but a spread of 28 points (i.e. nearly two standard deviations) is simply unbelievable.

[Nifty]

'Nother quick Google search dug up this. As a fallback, I still find the earlier charts amusing

[GaijinPunch]

I was listening to NPR last week and there was talk about Japan possibly injecting ~50 trillion yen (did they move forward with the 10 trillion injection?)
and trying to decrease the strength of the yen. The report was brief and focused on the increase of manufacturing costs for Toyota and Nissan.

I think they just did about 40 the other day... effects were short-lived, but they said they're ready to do it again. Most export-heavy industries have forecast their gains on 80/$1, so if it's below that, they get fucked.

[gameoverDude]

Capitalism is really being put to the test this time around and time will only tell if it is in fact the best system despite its flaws. Ya know i will give the Jap auto makers credit for building there cars here and providing jobs instead of 1-800-Pakistan, India or whatever have u when u call customer service for just about any major corp.(Dell, Captial One) Might sound crude but it is the truth.

I know... I'm so damn sick of not being able to understand the customer service reps I talk to. These should be American jobs, not outsourced to someplace thousands of miles away.

And as for those "press 1 for English" phone menus with other language choices: GOOD GRIEF. Immigrants who don't know English need to learn it or go back.

This situation in England is 110% fucked up.

[ED-057]

anyone catch the recent Dylan Ratigan rant? "Your congress is bought! Your congress is incapable of making legislation on health care, banking, trade, or taxes [...]"

I heard that a recent poll shows congress having an approval rating in the teens (think it was 17%). Sadly, I find the idea of Obama calling out congress for corruption highly unlikely. After all, he was in congress, and presidential campaigns are not exactly funded by selling candy bars either.

[CMoon]

Regarding CMoon's comments... yes, it is somewhat frightening to admit that it may actually take that kind of upheaval to actually change things in a meaningful way.

And honestly, I'm equally frightened by it. I don't even know how the US could go about having a revolution or overthrowing its government (or if it should). As has been pointed out here, the US is so divided to begin with, there is so much confusion about what the US should be, and of course there is SO MUCH FUCKING SPIN on every topic, that it becomes impossible to even know what one should actually revolt for (nevermind how one would go about doing it.)

I think most of us agree that the US needs to stop being the international police and stop being in war constantly. But even if US citizens 100% agreed on this point, there is no effective way to actually change it. There's no vote option for the government to stop being dip shit and funneling my tax money to the rich via bullshit military operation budgets.

Oh, and PS, for anyone who doesn't get the 'spin' thing. Can anyone figure out how the arguments of the Tea Party are any different than what all of us were angry about under Bush?

[Blackbird]

Dylan Ratigan rant

Thanks for posting this. This literally made my day. It brought me more than a little satisfaction to see someone get mad as hell on national television for precisely the same reasons that I am angry. I felt like I was able to vicariously vent some of my frustrations, haha.

He's absolutely right. I don't know how we're going to do it, but it's undeniable at this point that we need to change the present situation. We can't sit around and hope Congress fixes things because they just want to maintain the status quo, and it will only get worse.

[Skykid]

I don't think anyone is really "questioning capitalism", per se, so much as questioning totally unrestrained, unregulated, anything-goes, laissez-faire capitalism.

Completely this.

Capitalism has its virtues, exemplified best in the US of the 50's where even factory labourers lived the high life. A decent income for all hard working individuals and healthy economic growth.

Today Capitalism is rotten, corrupt through a lack of proper regulation. When everyone is paying everyone else to pass their legislation, allowing them to sell poisoned food products or create unnecessary red tape to squeeze more money out of the little man, it just all goes to shit.
Wages stopped rising in-line with inflation when the country and government became owned by corporations. Corporate America is all it is now. There's no integrity left in law, college education (who needs one, really?), or government.

I think the unregulated pursuit of profit has killed the system, and the US is on the brink of hyperinflation. Bond holders will then attempt to sell their dollars rendering the currency worthless and practically ruining the global economy.

[CIT]

Completely this.

Capitalism has its virtues, exemplified best in the US of the 50's where even factory labourers lived the high life. A decent income for all hard working individuals and healthy economic growth.

Today Capitalism is rotten, corrupt through a lack of proper regulation. When everyone is paying everyone else to pass their legislation, allowing them to sell poisoned food products or create unnecessary red tape to squeeze more money out of the little man, it just all goes to shit.
Wages stopped rising in-line with inflation when the country and government became owned by corporations. Corporate America is all it is now. There's no integrity left in law, college education (who needs one, really?), or government.

I think the unregulated pursuit of profit has killed the system, and the US is on the brink of hyperinflation. Bond holders will then attempt to sell their dollars rendering the currency worthless and practically ruining the global economy.

The problem really is the exponential growth of compound interest. It works really well when a monetary system starts off, such as right after WWII, when Bretton-Woods was established. However, once you pass the first upward curve it begins to spiral out of control, governments start accruing impossible debts, and the gap between rich and poor widens drastically. Right now most of the Western industrialized nations have passed that curve. Eventually confidence in the financial system drops, and you get a tighter and tighter credit crunch, where it is harder and harder to secure investment capital. That's why throughout history you have a constant cycle of boom and bust, because our monetary system is inherently unsustainable. Eventually it needs to be reset by devaluing capital (for example by inflation, disappropriation, or war) and then everything starts over from scratch.

One idea to prevent this constant cycle and stabilize the system is to make money automatically incur negative interest. Meaning that liquid assets would lose their value over time, unless the money gets reinvested. That way you would permanently incentivize money circulation and spending. But try convincing a bank to go that way...

[BulletMagnet]

God help us.

[Damocles]

Meh. Like there's a Republican who can beat Obama...right now. Recent polls suggest Romney would, but I highly doubt that. Personally, I don't see a Republican "face", which is a major problem for them.

Bachmann? Nah. She's too much of a kook, even for the current parties.

[BulletMagnet]

Even if she doesn't have much chance of winning in the end, the fact that one of the biggest, most unapologetic nutcases in the bunch (which is REALLY saying something this time around) has even managed to get THIS far scares the living daylights out of me...seriously, to any of the conservatives on the forum, aren't any of you the least bit concerned at how mainstream the lunatic fringe has become on your end lately? (On the flipside, if there's one thing libs like myself DON'T have to worry about at present, that's it.)

[RNGmaster]

Even if she doesn't have much chance of winning in the end, the fact that one of the biggest, most unapologetic nutcases in the bunch (which is REALLY saying something this time around) has even managed to get THIS far scares the living daylights out of me...seriously, to any of the conservatives on the forum, aren't any of you the least bit concerned at how mainstream the lunatic fringe has become on your end lately? (On the flipside, if there's one thing libs like myself DON'T have to worry about at present, that's it.)

I'm telling my folks that if she secures the nomination, we're bailing and heading for Stockholm.

[yojo!]

I actually hope that a far right republican win the nomination and presidency. We have to hit rock bottom before we can move back up. Dems are full of promises but never deliver. With a nutcase republican at the top; things are going to go so bad that it might wake people up and start a revolution.

[ncp]

seriously, to any of the conservatives on the forum, aren't any of you the least bit concerned at how mainstream the lunatic fringe has become on your end lately?

Yeah, but "Lunatic fringe" is an exaggeration (right-wing lunatic fringe would be like... nationalist white supremacists lol, also inb4 someone claims the repub candidates are nationalist white supremacists), more like the right has just become more and more retarded. Bachmann is full-on creepy-status. I would seriously vote for Obama if Bachmann were the pres candidate. This saddens me, as I tend to side myself economically with the smaller government crowd. Too bad the Republican platform focuses any more focuses so much on "social issues". That blows since "conservative stance" on social issues really just means anti-gay and willing to sacrifice freedom for security.

Wish there was more libertarian support.

[Ex-Cyber]

Even if she doesn't have much chance of winning in the end, the fact that one of the biggest, most unapologetic nutcases in the bunch (which is REALLY saying something this time around) has even managed to get THIS far scares the living daylights out of me...seriously, to any of the conservatives on the forum, aren't any of you the least bit concerned at how mainstream the lunatic fringe has become on your end lately? (On the flipside, if there's one thing libs like myself DON'T have to worry about at present, that's it.)

To me, the scariest thing is what's going to happen when the fringe of the fringe decides that "the movement" hasn't gone far enough. We've already caught a whiff of fascism from Tea Party sympathizers; I can only hope that such feelings aren't common enough to fuel a violent splinter movement with the momentum to cross state/regional lines. History teaches us that It takes a shockingly small portion of the population to maintain such a thing. The majority need only tacitly approve or be too fearful to mount active opposition.

[BulletMagnet]

Yeah, but "Lunatic fringe" is an exaggeration (right-wing lunatic fringe would be like... nationalist white supremacists lol, also inb4 someone claims the repub candidates are nationalist white supremacists)

I dunno, the steady (de-)progression from "lower taxes" and "less government" to "NO TAXES EVER" and "HEALTH CARE IS DEATH PANELS" certainly strikes me as pretty extreme...on a related note, I should state that as a liberal I'm fine with the former stances, as I readily acknowledge that libs can go (and have gone) too far and need someone to keep them in check. That said, I'm seeing less and less of this kind of attitude on the right these days - maybe I'm missing all the outstretched (invisible?) hands, but all I seem to hear on the right is "ALL liberals are lazy traitors who hate America and want it to fail, and the world would be a better place if they all just went away and conservatives were in charge of absolutely everything forever." It's just The Way Things Are these days, and nobody says boo about it, as if it's always been thus...I dunno, is this really the "ideal political climate" that conservatives have been aiming for all this time? Are the rank and file really okay with this? They're sure acting like it, with very few exceptions...

[RNGmaster]

I actually hope that a far right republican win the nomination and presidency. We have to hit rock bottom before we can move back up. Dems are full of promises but never deliver. With a nutcase republican at the top; things are going to go so bad that it might wake people up and start a revolution.

Sure, that worked well when Bush had 2 terms.

[Evilmaxwar]

I wish i could respond something smart to this thread but ive been off this forum for a couple months, im currently drunk ( not my usual state ) and i font feel like reading 6 pages of stuff.
Being a canadian, i can say that right now the relative strength of our dollar is a cool thing for online shopping but that put aside, i have a bad feeling about the world...

Its not only about america, i think so many things are going totaly wrong, in a very serious way. Im considering the option of human civilization going BooM in my lifetime and am currently reading/learning about post apocalyptical survivalist lifestyle. The state of the world right now reminds me of a race through a snowbank where governments constantly shovel the snow forward in order to advance. The snow pile in front is constantly getting larger and at some point, just a matter of time. Its gonna get too big and everything is gonna stop. Then, the world as we know it will crash and chaos will ensue.

You cant blame the governments alone for this: overpopulation, stupid people, general cluelessness will play a big role in the downfall of humankind. I so much hope i am wrong about this but in my eyes things are currently looking dire.

I recommend reading this website.
http://www.endtimesreport.com/
A source of common sense and technical wisdom.
Do like me and print useful stuff, don’t wait until the internet is a legend of the past...